Speaker of the House
Congress just recently passed a $410 billion spending bill designed to fund various lawmakers’ pet projects, keeping the U.S. government spending and getting into everyone’s business. Obama is expected to sign off on the bill today, but before it makes it to the President, it is the Speaker of the House’s job to make sure the majority party’s legislation gets passed. In other words, the job’s title really is indicative of the job’s duties.
According to the official Speaker website,
“The Speaker of the House of Representatives is elected by his or her fellow Members to preside over the House. The Speaker typically maintains three roles, as the Representative for his or her district, as a leader of his or her party, and as the leader of the House as a whole. The party that holds a majority of the seats in the House will generally elect a Representative of their own party to serve as Speaker.” (Source: Speaker.gov)
When the majority party shares the same party as the President (which happens to be the current situation in the Democratic White House), there is a tendency for more legislation to get passed because opposition of a majority is unlikely. Conversely, when the President’s party conflicts with the House majority (such as at the end of Bush’s term), the Speaker of the House’s job becomes much more prominent because he or she must “battle” with the President to get the same issues passed.
The current Speaker of the House is Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to hold the position and a member of the House of Representatives for over 20 years. (Source: Speaker.gov)
Note: the Speaker is next in succession for the presidency behind the Vice President.
Read on:
Responsibilities of the Speaker of the House
Short biography of Nancy Pelosi
Wikipedia.org – Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
Wikipedia.org – historical list of Speakers
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